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MOVIE REVIEW
THE INCREDIBLE HULK
Incredible? No. Decent? Yes.
B |
ottom line: A solid Real Man’s movie with a decent story line, plenty of action, and an occasional laugh. Three out of five beers.
When I first saw the previews for the new Hulk movie, it looked woefully inferior to the latest successful comic book movie, Iron Man. And it is inferior...but not by much.
Edward Norton turns in a solid effort as Dr. Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk. We also get three entertaining cameos: Bill Bixby in a television clip from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father; Stan Lee who drinks some tainted cola and dies; and Lou Ferrigno who plays a security guard.
The story picks up with Banner on the run from the U.S. military. It fills in the blanks with occasional flashbacks. Liv Tyler plays Banner’s love interest, and Tim Roth plays a soldier who has himself injected with Hulk solution in order to give the Hulk a real fight.
After one Hulk transformation, we get a cringe inducing view of a scrawny looking Norton in only his ragged short pants. I was thinking to myself that Norton could have spent a little more time in the gym to prep for this superhero role, you know, like Robert Downey Jr. did for Iron Man. But shortly thereafter we’re treated to the pathetic shirtless physique of Tim Roth. My apologies Norton – compared to Roth, you are indeed a superhero. Tim, dude, lay off the heroin man.
They pay homage to one of the details that drove many of us crazy in past Hulk performances – the pants. In other versions of the Hulk, we see a normal pant wearing Dr. Banner transform into a huge Hulk, some 2 to 20 times larger than the original guy. Yet, when Banner wakes up, he’s still wearing his original pants. This time they poke fun at it by having Banner shop for ‘stretchy’ pants.
We also get a few too many emotional scenes for my taste. Both Banner and the Hulk came awful close to crying a few too many times. How many times do we need to see the sensitive side of the Hulk? Once works.
In another memorable scene, the Hulk is startled by his girlfriend and hits his head on a rock as he stands up. He grunts and holds his head in pain. What’s wrong with that? The Hulk had just been shot by dozens of 50 caliber bullets, stood in the middle of numerous lethal explosions, and smashed his head and body into tanks, trucks, and other equipment. Not once did he wince in pain. But he hits his head on a rock and hurts himself? Come on.
As far as sex appeal, you’ll have to look elsewhere. There’s a brief scene where we get some nice shots of Liv Tyler’s upper thighs wrapped around Norton. There are also a few Brazilian beauties revealing a little skin. Other than that, it’s all about the violence baby. Three out of Five Beers. .©2008 www.realmanmag.com
